Metropolitan Housing Development in Urban Fringe Areas-A Case Study of Three Metropolitan Cities of South Africa: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane

Purpose:The metropolitan cities of Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane play an important role in the economy of the Gauteng province in South Africa.The region constitutes to 22.4 percent of the total population of South Africa and has a strong presence and contributes in areas of manufacturing sector,financial and business services,retail and wholesale trade,etc.The rapid urban population,increase in the informal settlements and socio-economic opportunities has resulted in considerable urban sprawl in and around the urban fringe areas of these metropolitan cities.The urban fringe areas of these metros often come under the influence of rapid urbanization process and pressures.Coupled with the economical and potential land dynamics and lack of priority of spatial development guidelines,these areas attract rapid and haphazard development from communities and developers.Research Design/Methodology:This research is based on a qualitative approach through a comprehensive literature review that included content analysis of key documents on housing sector such as IDPs(Integrated Development Plans),Municipal Annual Reports,Growth Development Strategies,and among other sectoral documents on housing sector.Some of the key priority issues considered in the housing sector included:eradication of housing backlogs,spatial restructuring of housing,provision of choice in terms of location,tenure and housing typology.Findings:The current paper discusses the approaches of metropolitan housing development processes in three metropolitan cities of South Africa from Gauteng region,namely:Johannesburg,Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.The paper discusses the existing housing sectoral scenario along with the fringe areas in three cities with focus on:formal and informal settlements,housing segregation and the backlogs,current institutional arrangements,role of public private participation,and scope for alternate mechanisms.The paper concludes in discussion on sustainable development options for housing development in urban fringe areas.

Dynamic Development Characteristics and Driving Factors of High Quality Development Level in China’s Five Major Urban Agglomerations

High-quality development is the primary task of comprehensively building a socialist,modern country,as well as the primary task of building urban agglomerations in China.Based on the five development concepts,this paper used the entropy method to measure the High Quality Development Index(HQDI)of the five major urban agglomerations.The results showed that the HQDI of the five major urban agglomerations shows a fluctuating upward trend.First,using the Dagum Gini coefficient to explore the sources of HQDI development differences in urban agglomerations,we found that the main source of HQDI differences in urban agglomerations was inter-regional differences,while intra-regional differences were not important.Second,kernel density estimation was used to test the dynamic evolution trend of HQDI within urban agglomerations.There was a polarisation phenomenon in the HQDI of urban agglomerations,such as the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration and the Chengdu-Chongqing urban agglomeration.But overall,the degree of imbalance had decreased.Third,using geographic detectors to examine the driving factors of HQDI in urban agglomerations,we found that the main driving forces for improving HQDI in urban agglomerations were economic growth,artificial intelligence technology and fiscal decentralisation.All the interaction factors had greater explanatory power for the spatial differentiation of HQDI,which can be divided into two types:two-factor improvement and non-linear improvement.This study is conducive to improving and enriching the theoretical system for evaluating the high quality development of urban agglomerations,and provides policy references for promoting the high quality development of urban agglomerations.

Identifying influencing factors and characterizing key issues in urban sustainable development capacity through machine learning

In response to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and China’s“Dual Carbon”Goals(DCGs means the goals of“Carbon Peak and carbon neutrality”),this paper from the perspective of the construction of China’s Innovation Demonstration Zones for Sustainable Development Agenda(IDZSDAs),combines carbon emission-related metrics to construct a comprehensive assessment system for Urban Sustainable Development Capacity(USDC).After obtaining USDC assessment results through the assessment system,an approach combining Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator(LASSO)regression and Random Forest(RF)based on machine learning is proposed for identifying influencing factors and characterizing key issues.Combining Coupling Coordination Degree(CCD)analysis,the study further summarizes the systemic patterns and future directions of urban sustainable development.A case study on the IDZSDAs from 2015 to 2022 reveals that:(1)the combined identification method based on machine learning and CCD models effectively quantifies influencing factors and key issues in the urban sustainable development process;(2)the correspondence between influencing factors and key subsystems identified by the LASSO-RF combination model is generally consistent with the development situations in various cities;and(3)the machine learning-based combined recognition method is scalable and dynamic.It enables decision-makers to accurately identify influencing factors and characterize key issues based on actual urban development needs.

Development Strategies for Urban Parks in Chongqing’s Main District:A New Paradigm for Urban Green Spaces

With the advent of the new concept of an“urban park”and the new paradigm of urban development,Chongqing Municipality has actively embraced this vision,integrating it with the city’s unique geographical and demographic conditions.The city has prioritized urban park construction as a key project for public welfare,aiming to address issues such as uneven geographical distribution,limited functionality,and mismatched supply and demand.This initiative seeks to optimize urban parks as vital public resources while protecting the ecological environment.Adhering to principles of functional priority,safety and comfort,shared development,and distinctive features,Chongqing has incorporated parks and other green open spaces into its basic urban planning.This approach aims to create beautiful,comfortable and age-friendly shared urban spaces.This study,grounded in the urban park development concept and the characteristics of a mountainous,multi-center city,constructs a model to measure urban park satisfaction in Chongqing’s main urban area.The model considers supply-demand matching and resident satisfaction.It aims to systematically review relevant policies,plans,and cutting-edge theories,analyze the urban park development in Chongqing,understand residents’needs,and address issues related to supply-demand matching,multifunctionality,and quality construction.The findings provide insights into the development and conservation of urban parks in Chongqing and beyond,aiming to continually meet the public’s growing desire for a better quality of life and support high-quality development.

Development of Sustainable Urban-Rural Integration:Dongtan Case Study

The environmental impact issues,such as global warming and expansion of the urban zone,seem more serious and have become the biggest defining challenges of the 21st century.Climate change can lead to water shortages,desertification,land degradation,air pollution,rising sea levels,accelerated deforestation,and exacerbated economic pressures.Global urban growth greatly impacts changes in sociability,humanity,and the environment of the Earth.The human presence,especially in cities,seriously affects resource use and waste disposal,and they are consuming natural resources faster than the planet can sustain during urbanization,changing how people live.China,with a population of 1.3 billion,has seen tens of millions of people living in the countryside migrate to cities,especially megacities,since the 1980s.As a result of its decision to industrialize and urbanize to boost the economy,China has become the world’s second-largest consumer of energy.In recent years,China’s government has quickly recognized the lessons of“limits to growth”and has taken action by initiating the construction process in Dongtan,Shanghai,China.They are making efforts to build urban-rural integration communities to promote sustainable development.Based on a literature review focusing on Dongtan,research questions are raised according to the research objective:(1)What are the challenges of sustainable development in urban-rural integration?(2)What practices has Dongtan implemented for sustainable development,or how is sustainable development being applied to Dongtan?(3)What are the social,political,environmental,and economic concerns regarding the sustainable development of Dongtan?The sustainable urban-rural integration concerns the ecological,economic,environmental,and psychological aspects of urban-rural integration design and management.The overall objective is to promote sustainable development in economic,social,ecological,and spatial dimensions.It will be a liveable,complete community that makes economic,environmental,and social sense locally while also contributing to national and global sustainable development.It will serve as a compelling model for how to build sustainable urban-rural integration worldwide.

Research on the Balanced Development of Urban and Rural Compulsory Education Through Education Resource Allocation

With the rapid development of our country’s economy,education has gradually become the focus of social attention.The problem of unbalanced distribution of urban and rural educational resources has become increasingly prominent,urban educational resources are relatively rich,while rural educational resources are relatively scarce,and the balanced development of urban and rural compulsory education has become an urgent task.This paper mainly investigates and studies the distribution of urban and rural educational resources,discusses the unbalanced distribution of urban and rural educational resources and analyzes the reasons,and puts forward a series of corresponding solutions to promote the balanced development of urban and rural compulsory education.

Influence Factors of Urban Sustainable Development of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region——with a Case of Urumqi

Urban sustainable development is under influence of social, economic and environmental factors. Xinjiang is in a new cross-domain development stage, and the research on urban sustainable development in Xinjiang wil be an important contribu-tion to sustainable development in western China. In this paper, with the district of Urumqi city as the study area, environmental indicators in 2011 economic society were col ected to establish an index system of factors affecting the sustainable de-velopment, and to make analysis and comprehensive evaluation on the influence factors, proposing suggestions and countermeasures of sustainable development in districts or counties in Urumqi County as per quantitative and qualitative analysis methods.

Research on Current Status and Development of Urban Wetland Park

This paper summarized the theory and research progress of urban wetland park and elaborated development status of urban wetland park construction at home and abroad,analyzed the existing problems of domestic urban wetland park.In 1970s,some developed countries began to focus on restoration and construction of ecological environment in wetland and restoration work of habitats,with the sustainable development as the goal,a complete theoretical system was formed initially.But domestic theory research of wetland was relatively weak,and wetland restoration and wetland protection policies,etc.are relatively backward.This paper elaborated current situation of construction and development of urban wetland park,analyzed the existing problems of domestic urban wetland park,which mainly showed in the following aspects:blindly following suit without full scientific verification,unreasonable selecting of lands,unreasonable management system,inadequate policy and regulations,and lack of a huge human resources and mature technologies.This paper also put forward several guidance recommendations for existed problems of domestic urban wetlands from the ecological point of view,including giving primary importance to the protection of ecological environment of water in urban wetland park,and treating fouling species correctly.

Development Mode for the Characteristic Urbanization of Rural Areas in Heilongjiang Province

By analyzing the urbanization of rural areas in Heilongjiang Province,the authors pointed out the existing problems:insufficient motive power of its subjects,low construction level,less prominent functional features of townlets,low scale merits,low efficiency of resource distribution and so on.According to the classification of its townlets,the following 4 modes were given for the rural urbanization of Heilongjiang:A.Motivated by Ecological Construction.It is to solve population problems through ecological migrants,enhance infrastructure construction of townlets,strengthen their capacity of concentrating and absorbing resources;B.Motivated by featured agriculture.It is to develop featured industries on the basis of featured resources with market as the orientation,create a favorable exterior development environment for featured agriculture with the help of government;C.Based on Competitive Tourist Products.It is to coordinate the development of tourism and townlets through scientific planning,design competitive tourism projects and build famous tourism towns;D.Driven by Trade and Processing Industry.It is to promote the capacity of these towns in developing foreign trade,improve policy environment and trade facilities.All these 4 modes are proposed on the basis of actual conditions to give more choices for the characteristic urbanization of its rural areas.

Study on the Urban Tourism Development in Qin-Ba Area Based on SWOT Analysis——A case study of Dazhou City

The urban tourism of Dazhou City was analyzed by SWOT analysis method,and corresponding exploration strategies were put forward.

System Design for Urban Forest Park——Based on Elimination of Externality during Development and Tourism Process

The paper had introduced researches on urban forest park and analyzed its particularity.In terms of elimination of externality during development and tourism consumption process of urban forest park,real estate agent had been introduced and two assumptions had been proposed to eliminate externality.As for elimination of externality during development of urban forest park,right to use planning land for urban forest park and surrounding land for real estate development would be sold to estate agent who would develop urban forest park and commodity house;the management of forest urban park would be undertaken by tourism development companies for which estate agent would make compensation.As for elimination of externality during tourism consumption process,it would control with policies and laws,or establish ticket system.As the study hadn't been conducted on policies about urban land and real estate,the feasibility of the first assumption needed to be further studied by environmental economists.

Normative Analysis and Strategy Research on Harmonized Development of Modern Industrialization, Urbanization, Agricultural Modernization and IT Application

Targeting modernization, we should keep to the Chinese-style path of car- rying out industrialization in a new way and advancing IT application, urbanization, and agricultural modernization. In the research, the scientific concepts of IT applica- tion, urbanization, agricultural modernization and industrialization were illustrated and the interrelations were analyzed, with measures on harmonized development pro- posed based on existing problems.

Strategy for Construction of World Modern Garden City in Chengdu of China under the Background of Integration of Urban-rural Development

In the perspective of natural geological climate and social economic situation of Chengdu City,the paper had analyzed the tendency of integration of urban-rural development in Chengdu,and proposed strategy to construct world modern garden city.It had illustrated basic conditions to construct world modern garden city in Chengdu at current period,and it was considered that good timing,geographical convenience and good human relations were involved in this strategy.In order to satisfy the six traits of word modern garden city,it had proposed short-term,mid-term and long-term targets;and focused on industrial development,enriching and benefiting the people,opening up to the outside world and institutional innovation.It also suggested weakening original economic geological pattern of Chengdu,so as to form complete urban system of sharing homogeneity of market construction,policy allocation,basic facilities,and social security system,seek for general welfare and diverse cooperation,and finally construct world modern garden city with good living environment,excellent investment environment,fine cultural atmosphere,high functional level,and strong comprehensive competitiveness.

Measurement and Spatio-temporal Distribution of Urbanization Development Quality of Urban Agglomeration in China

Urbanization development quality(UDQ) of urban agglomeration(UA) is one of the important indexes to evaluate if the UA urbanization speed is reasonable,if the population urbanization process is sound,if the economic urbanization process is efficient,if the social urbanization process is harmonious and fair,which is generally composed of three parts,including economic urbanization development quality,social urbanization development quality and spa-tial urbanization security quality.With the research of evolution rules of UDQ,through the analysis on the interactive coordination relation between UDQ and urbanization level,the paper proposes three dimensional index ball and stan-dard value of comprehensive measures of UDQ,which is composed of three categories of indexes.By introducing At-kinson model,this paper constructs the sub-element measure model and segmental measure model of UDQ,and fur-ther makes an overall evaluation on the characteristic of UDQ of UAs in China.Results show that:1) UDQ of UAs lied at optimization and upgrading phase during 1995-2008 and the quality was low.Population urbanization level did not reflect the UDQ of UAs;2) the improving speed of the spatial urbanization security quality was higher than the so-cial urbanization development quality,and the improving speed of economic urbanization development quality was the lowest;3) the coordination between UDQ and urbanization level was not so good;4) there was a weak correlation re-lation between UDQ and UA scale,and it was not true that the bigger the UA was,the better the UDQ was.

Spatio-temporal Pattern Characteristics of Relationship Between Urbanization and Economic Development at County Level in China

The relationship between China’s urbanization and economic development(RCUED) is an important concern nationwide. As important actors in regional strategy and policy, county-level regions have played an increasingly significant role in the development of China’s social economy. However, the existing research on the RCUED lacks the fine depiction of the county-level administrative units.Using 2000 and 2010 census data and the statistical analysis method, we uncovered the evolution characteristics of China’s urbanization and economic development and conducted a quantitative identification for the RCUED with improved methods using the quadrant map approach. In addition, we investigated the spatial correlation effect of the RCUED using the spatial autocorrelation analysis method. The results were as follows: 1) In general, a high degree of matching exists between China’s urbanization and economic development at the county level at the significance level of 0.01. The correlation coefficients between China’s urbanization and economic development in2000 and 2010 were 0.608 and 0.603, respectively. 2) A significant regional difference exists in the RCUED at the county level. Based on a comparative analysis of 2276 county units in China in the two years, we found that county units can be categorized as under-urbanized, basic coordination and over-urbanized in various areas. No situation was observed where urbanization seriously lagged behind the economic development level, so the levels of urbanization and economic development appear to be basically coordinated,and the coordination state may be gradually optimized over time. 3) Over time, the spatial dependency of the RCUED has weakened and the spatial heterogeneity has increased. Northeast China has always been an area characterized by over-urbanization. The number of county units classified as under-urbanized has begun to decline in eastern coastal urban agglomeration areas, while counties rich in resources have transformed from having point-shaped over-urbanization to plane-shaped under-urbanization along the northern border,and the number of over-urbanized county units has increased in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. 4)’Lag-lag’ type and ’advance-advance’ type accounted for 68% of all counties in China, and these counties were shown to have obvious spatial differentiation characteristics.

Influence of new town development on the urban heat island-The case of the Bundang area

Five new towns have been developed around the Seoul metropolitan area since 1996 However, these new towns generate lots of traffic and related problems in the areas including those new towns and Seoul as a result of increases in population and a lack of ecological-self-sufficiency. Currently, construction of another new town is under deliberation, and what should be a major consider is the notion that the new town be located within a wide, green zone. Many studies have revealed that green space can play an important role in improving urban eco-meteorological capability and air quality. In order to analyze the urban heat island which will be created by the new urban development, and to investigate the local thermal environment and its negative effects caused by a change of land use type and urbanization, Landsat TM images were used for extraction of urban surface temperature according to changes of land use over the last 15 years. These data are analyzed together with digital land use and topographic information. As a study result, it was found the urban heat island of the study area from 1985 to 1999 rapidly developed which showed a difference of mean temperature above +2 0 Before the Bundang new town construction the temperature of the residential area was the same as a forest, but during the new town construction in 1991 analysis revealed the creation of an urban heat island. The temperature of a forest whose size is over 50% of the investigation area was lowest, and thus the presence of a forest is believed to have a direct cooling effect on the urban environment and its surroundings. The mean temperature of the residential and commercial areas in the study was found to be +4 5 higher than the forest, and therefore this part of land use is believed to be the main factor causing the temperature increase of the urban heat island.

Appraisal of typical rural development models during rapid urbanization in the eastern coastal region of China

The sustainability of regional rural development depends on the integrated status and the coordination between rural resources-environment conditions and rural socioeco- nomic development. In this paper a diagnostic indicator system is proposed to appraise four representative rural development models such as Mentougou model, Taicang model, Yueqing model and Qionghai model in the eastern coastal region of China from the integrated perspective of population, resources, environment, and development. In conclusion, the formation and evolution of these diverse rural deveJopment models are the direct response to the very different characteristics in the environment, market demand, and regional culture. These models are common in that their sustainability depends on the scientific guidance of the regional development functional positioning, strong intra-regional interactions, and self-adaptability to the external conditions.

Development as adaptation: Framing and measuring urban resilience in Beijing

As part of their efforts to cope with climate change, many municipal governments have considered the improvement of urban resilience as an important strategy. In this study, we take the megacity of Beijing as an example and conduct a mixed-methods research using both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore linkage between resilience and development. First, based on expert consultation, we develop an analytical framework and propose reference indicators for measuring urban resilience. Second, we conduct an exploratory factor analysis to justify this analytical framework and rank the urban resilience index for 16 districts in Beijing. Results indicate that urban resilience at the district level is distinguished by the characteristics of the district's functional zones. This implies that the development focus of each district influences the driving factors of urban resilience. This article provides evidence that development and adaptation can be complementary. We showcase in Beijing that urban generic resilience is highly dependent on socio-economic development and urbanization, whereas specific resilience to climatic extremes can be attributed to natural endowment and environmental investment. In conclusion, using this study's findings as a guideline, mega-cities are urged to adopt development-oriented adaptation as a strategy of proactive risk planning in the context of rapid urbanization and global climate change in China.

A relationship between red tide outbreaks and urban development along the coasts of Guangdong Province

Red tides are one of the main coastal catastrophic events in Guangdong Province of southern China. The comparison between the number of red tide events and the development indexes of cities along the coasts of the province shows that the regional differences in red tide outbreaks has close relations with the coastal urban developments. The cause for an initiation of red tide blooms may be natural factors, while wastewater caused by the fast development of population, industry and aquiculture of the coastal cities enhanced the blooms. It may explain why the two periods of frequent outbreaks of the red tides over the last two decades matched the urban developments in the coastal areas of Guangdong not only spatially but also temporally. The red tides in the first period were restricted only to the coasts of middle Guangdong, where urbanization process was at a higher speed than the other coastal areas of the province. In the second period, fast development of the coastal cities in eastern Guangdong led to an increase in the occurrence of red tides in local sea areas of the same coasts.

A STUDY ON THE FORECAST AND REGULATION OF COORDINATED DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND ECONOMY IN GUANGZHOU

This article introduces the concepts of coordinated development of economy and environment and formulas of coordinated degree. Results obtained are that the coordinated degree in 1992 is over 0.87.The variation tendencies on coordinated development of urb